What happened
On September 25, 2017, a Cessna 172P, registration JA4062, was operating a passenger flight from Kagoshima Airport to Satsuma Iojima Airport. The aircraft was carrying a total of three people, including the captain and two passengers.
Upon arrival at the airport, the captain performed a low approach to assess the local air currents. Although the captain noted the presence of updrafts, downdrafts, and sudden gusts from the east, he determined that the aircraft could be controlled and proceeded to land on Runway 18. During the landing sequence, the aircraft encountered a hard touchdown followed by a series of bounces. Rather than initiating a go-around, the captain continued the landing attempt. The aircraft experienced a porpoising motion, characterized by vertical and horizontal oscillations, before finally coming to a stop. Following the landing, the captain observed that the nose wheel had gone flat.
The investigation
The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) investigated the incident, focusing on the aircraft's structural damage and the meteorological conditions at the time of the accident. The investigation examined the damage to the forward fuselage, noting that the nose landing gear mounting areas in the forward fuselage bulkhead had sustained heavy loads. This impact caused deformation to the cockpit floor and the lower skin of the forward fuselage.
Investigators also analyzed the wind conditions at the airport. While official airport observations recorded an east-northeast wind at 1.6 m/s, the captain's report indicated much stronger east winds, ranging from 15 to 25 knots, which are known to create turbulent air at this location due to the surrounding topography.